Sunday, July 24, 2011

Nothing really to say about this one. Randy apparently recently read about the mimic octopus and decided that it made a pretty good punchline for a comic, I guess? Or maybe the punchline is the bit where he is like "TWO mimic octopuses. DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING, DID YOU?"

Alt text sounds mostly like GOOMH-bait. But I'm okay with this one, since he mostly is just using it as a "speaking of the plural form of octopus" aside. I just wish he'd pick something and stick to it.

929, though. Oh man.

Posted by
rs

88 comments:

You just didn't get the octopus joke. It's a math joke- with two variables and a constant you can determine the variables so if you have two mimic octopuses you can discern the octopus. It's funny if you like equations, which most xkcd readers do.

I concede that 929 is not very good. Whatever happened to the classhole's fiendishness? Puncturing a ball is a child's trick.

Although actually I wonder if he was going for something along the lines of pointing out that playing basketball requires "universal adoption" of the rules (or at least the basic premise) of basketball? Meh.

Why oh why did I tell Ann Apolis to write for XKCD SUCKS this week? Now I can't make a post without stealing her thunder. =/

Key points concerning 929:1) Why does the guy want everyone to join Google+? I was under the impression that a large part of the appeal was that everyone and their mother WASN'T on Google+...2) I don't understand the logic in panel 2. The reason the guy's social life doesn't happen on AOL is that it's NOT A SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE. If "everyone" stays on Facebook, then yes, your social life DOES have to happen there. (Also, it's worth noting that we've apparently precluded "being social" and "having a life" as necessary components of a social life.)3) WHY IS MR. HAT THERE? Those last two panels could be the ending to literally any setup.

"So, did you hear about that new Linux distro? I'm thinking about switching." "Yeah, well, -" THUNK"What's the deal with airplane food, right guys? It's like -" THUNK"Because of a family illness, instead of regular comics, this week I'll -" THUNK

Actually, that last one might be good.

The point is that Randall has not told a joke. The punchline is completely and totally disconnected from the setup, and therefore neither is contributes to the strip. As a result, 929 is garbage.

Cancer is easy to deal with: screen regularly and remove cancerous tissue. The problem is that there's way more profit in waiting until every illness has progressed enough that the patient is subjected to a long treatment process - this even applies under nationalised healthcare systems where employees, contractors and management still demand clients.

But 3:59, how will Randy love her if they hack off her milk tanks? It's not as simple as the perfect world you paint.The reality is, if she lost both of her ample bapples to cancer, Randy would leave her cold and alone on the streets of Gotham.The rumors would spread, and the taint of his love would leave her unwanted.

Your concern is honourable, 4:21, but it is quite possible that Megan has not been touched by Randy except through the pulling of hair and suckling of teat. Since the cancer will result in all stained parts falling off, she becomes pure again.

4:28, you have blown my mind.I had never even considered that she did not like Randy's loving touch.It all seems so /OBVIOUS/ now. He comes home from a stressful day of drawing sticks, maybe he has had a few too many to drink.He holds her arms, trying to force her hands from defending her ample bosom. "It's got long sleeves" he says to himself "The bruises will hardly show". In his drunken rage he forces her to the ground, bestial; he pinches and rubs his icy hands over her nipples. As if by magic they begin to perk, her shrill voice screams "No, Rand, No! For God's sake NO!" but by this point he is more animal than man. His tightly pursed lips latch on to her nipple, and Megan's anger is released as pressured milk streams.

It is probably fortuitous that Americans always score lower in maths and science testing versus the 'Arian' Norskis. Otherwise the American Mass Murderers would be as methodical and efficient as those Fjord Feckers appear to be.

To catch a baseball, the player should position the glove according to the flight of the ball. If the ball is below the waist, the fingers and the palm of the glove hand should be pointed down with the mitt fully open. If the ball is chest high, the fingers and the palm of the glove should be pointing out, with the thumbs pointing to the sky. If the ball is above the chest, the fingers point toward the sky.In all catching attempts, a player should :

1. Keep eyes on the ball 2. Have both hands ready, with arms relaxed and extended towards the ball 3. Bend the elbows to absorb the force of the throw 4. Watch the ball into the glove and squeeze it. 5. After the catch, the player should immediately grip the ball with the throwing hand in the correct overhand throwing technique.

Do XKCD characters always pull crossbows out of their asses? And, what the fuck; is black hat examining a pile of shit? What is meant by "it was hard enough getting them on Facebook"? As if these characters (or the author) had anything to do with widespread use?

Maybe I'm a bit naive about this whole social networking thing (because I have never used a social network), but is online interaction now considered "social" (panel 2). Or am I mistaken?

I pixelate like a person who is learning English as her fourth language. My mother tongue does not use punctuation - as you would define it - and my second and third languages, though Romance, have different punctuation rules.

I will translocate the comma, as per your request, if you insert the necessary indefinite article in 10:21.

Scholarship candidate?You silver-tongued bounder!

Anonymous 10:27,

A question mark is not needed. 10:21 is making a declarative statement - I think.

Which of your Romance languages are you claiming to have confused English with? I'd hazard a guess that Spanish is one you're up on but that wouldn't explain your error. Neither would French. And Latin, of course, would just laugh. Perhaps Portuguese has some oddities...? (It's easy for a Hispanophone to read but sounds worse than Catalan!)

captcha: mongshid. And so ALTF was cast out from the Mongshid tribe, forced onto a canoe and floated into the Pacific. Bumping into the Andes several weeks later, she subsisted on potatoes and bad grammar until a Canadian diplomat selected her for his harem.

The word 'canoe' is of Arawak/Carib origin via Spanish and French - we've no canoes in the Motherland! I escaped on a traditional Myanmar teak boat down the Ayeyarwaddy river to the Andaman Sea; Straight of Malacca; Java, Banda and Arfura Seas until traversing the Torres Straight and reaching the Pacific.I earned a few bob fellating Brit expats in Phi Phi and Singapore on the way.

If I didn't think you were trolling I'd say you were a complete fucking idiot. And there's a part of me that is terrified that you're serious. There's no reason to interpret this comic as a math joke; just because you can find a way two things are ever so slightly connected doesn't mean that the connection was an intentional decision of the author.

Also, you're just wrong. If the mimic octopi (suck it Randall!) are meant to be "variables", whether you have one or two or a million is irrelevant without additional information. On their own, 'X' and 'X+N' are equally meaningless.

With which of my Romance languages am I confusing English? (Notice I do not end my sentences with prepositions like some people do!)I am learning English which is Germanic - there is no confusion with French or Spanish.

ALTF, you said: "I pixelate like a person who is learning English as her fourth language. My mother tongue does not use punctuation - as you would define it - and my second and third languages, though Romance, have different punctuation rules."

If this were one of those inane aptitude tests, the multiple choice answer to the question, "Why did ALTF comment that her second and third languages have different punctuation rules?" would be something like, "As a poor excuse for getting English punctuation wrong."

While I'm here, the linguist's counterargument to, "Don't end English sentences with prepositions!" is, of course, to point out that English is Germanic. Bravo.

They are canoes thus properly called canoes. You're not about to go all French and claim that it's not champagne unless it was made in Champagne, are you? Fairly sure the Arawak haven't made that claim.

As to the IPO creating new multi-billionaires... what? The paper valuation of the major owners is already in the billions, figures which will remain as meaningful after the IPO pump.

So the act of stating English is Germanic, which allows for terminal preposition placement, and then chastising folks for placing these horrid prepositions in the terminal position when writing in English and then not recognising the contradiction inherrent in holding these two mutually exclusive beliefs at the same time is Bravo? And I am not Brava?Fie I say!A most heinous disapprobation!

But it is an anagram of "refence nude", about the only time you should put something on, and very hard not to type as "reference nude", undoubtedly the thought of Caine's character in Educating Rita at the fresh start of each new year to keep him attentive for at least the first few weeks. Fucking brilliant film, that. Not to be confused with Rita, Sue and Bob Too which should be searched for using Youtube to give the completion "film car scene", referring to the clumsy underage sex scene and reminding us what a sordid place the Internet really is (and how good Google is at indexing it).

I liked Caine in "The Man Who Would Be King".Educating Rita is good too! Great similarity with Fucking Aquarians and me.When I met her 6 years ago, she could barely articulate crude grunts and "Me want Snoo snoo" was the extent of her verbiage in English.

At prep school I had a crush on an Indian girl. She ended up training as a gas passer.

At sixth form I had a crush on a German girl. She ended up training as a gas passer. (Now off on a voluntary mission which let her see the first sunrise on South Sudan - enough Internet detective work'll allow you to work out who she is and who I am.)

It's true! That blog is like this one, only without the sense of irony, the humor, the understanding, or Rob's 'like I give a fuck' attitude. Also, the posts there are twice as long as the ones here, which means they are twice as good.

you don't get it. the joke is not "oh, didn't see that one coming, did you?" More specifically, it's funny because all the other pictures were obviously something else, but then labeled as "mimic octopuses" since they take the shape of anything. Then, in the last one, you see what is obviously an octopus, and is it an octupus? Nope. It's /two/ mimic octopuses/pode/pi

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I started this site because it had been clear to me for a while that xkcd is no longer a great webcomic (though it once was). Alas, many of its fans are too caught up in the faux-nerd culture that xkcd is a part of, and can't bring themselves to admit that the comic, at this point, is terrible. While I still like a new comic on occasion, I feel that more and more of them need the Iron Finger of Mockery knowingly pointed at them. This used to be called "XKCD: Overrated", but then it fell from just being overrated to being just horrible. Thus, xkcd sucks.

Here is a comic about me that Ann made. It is my favorite thing in the world.

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